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The forgotten mothers of extremely preterm babies: A qualitative study

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: To explore the experiences of mothers of extremely premature babies during their Neonatal Intensive Care Unit stay and transition home. BACKGROUND: Mothers of extremely preterm infants (28 weeks’ gestation or less) experience a continuum of regular and repeated stressful and tra...

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Autores principales: Fowler, Cathrine, Green, Janet, Elliott, Doug, Petty, Julia, Whiting, Lisa
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7328789/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30786101
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/jocn.14820
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author Fowler, Cathrine
Green, Janet
Elliott, Doug
Petty, Julia
Whiting, Lisa
author_facet Fowler, Cathrine
Green, Janet
Elliott, Doug
Petty, Julia
Whiting, Lisa
author_sort Fowler, Cathrine
collection PubMed
description AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: To explore the experiences of mothers of extremely premature babies during their Neonatal Intensive Care Unit stay and transition home. BACKGROUND: Mothers of extremely preterm infants (28 weeks’ gestation or less) experience a continuum of regular and repeated stressful and traumatic events, during the perinatal period, during the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit stay, and during transition home. METHOD: An interpretive description method guided this study. Ten mothers of extremely premature infants who had been at home for less than six months were recruited via a Facebook invitation to participate in semi‐structured telephone interviews exploring their experiences in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit and the transition home. The data were examined using a six‐phase thematic analysis approach. The COREQ checklist has been used. RESULTS: Two main themes emerged: (a) things got a bit dire; and (b) feeling a failure as a mother. Participants had a heightened risk of developing a mental disorder from exposure to multiple risk factors prior to and during birth, as well as during the postnatal period in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit and their infant's transition to home. Mothers highlighted the minimal support for their mental health from healthcare professionals, despite their regular and repeated experience of traumatic events. CONCLUSION: The mothers were at high risk of developing post‐traumatic stress symptoms and/or other mental health issues. Of note, study participants relived the trauma of witnessing their infant in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, demonstrated hypervigilance behaviour and identified lack of relevant support needed when their infant was at home. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE: This study highlights the need for nurses to include a focus on the mothers’ psychosocial needs. Supporting maternal mental health both improves maternal well‐being and enables mothers to be emotionally available and responsive to their extremely preterm infant.
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spelling pubmed-73287892020-07-02 The forgotten mothers of extremely preterm babies: A qualitative study Fowler, Cathrine Green, Janet Elliott, Doug Petty, Julia Whiting, Lisa J Clin Nurs Original Articles AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: To explore the experiences of mothers of extremely premature babies during their Neonatal Intensive Care Unit stay and transition home. BACKGROUND: Mothers of extremely preterm infants (28 weeks’ gestation or less) experience a continuum of regular and repeated stressful and traumatic events, during the perinatal period, during the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit stay, and during transition home. METHOD: An interpretive description method guided this study. Ten mothers of extremely premature infants who had been at home for less than six months were recruited via a Facebook invitation to participate in semi‐structured telephone interviews exploring their experiences in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit and the transition home. The data were examined using a six‐phase thematic analysis approach. The COREQ checklist has been used. RESULTS: Two main themes emerged: (a) things got a bit dire; and (b) feeling a failure as a mother. Participants had a heightened risk of developing a mental disorder from exposure to multiple risk factors prior to and during birth, as well as during the postnatal period in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit and their infant's transition to home. Mothers highlighted the minimal support for their mental health from healthcare professionals, despite their regular and repeated experience of traumatic events. CONCLUSION: The mothers were at high risk of developing post‐traumatic stress symptoms and/or other mental health issues. Of note, study participants relived the trauma of witnessing their infant in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, demonstrated hypervigilance behaviour and identified lack of relevant support needed when their infant was at home. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE: This study highlights the need for nurses to include a focus on the mothers’ psychosocial needs. Supporting maternal mental health both improves maternal well‐being and enables mothers to be emotionally available and responsive to their extremely preterm infant. John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2019-03-08 2019-06 /pmc/articles/PMC7328789/ /pubmed/30786101 http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/jocn.14820 Text en © 2019 The Authors. Journal of Clinical Nursing Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd This is an open access article under the terms of the http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non‐commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.
spellingShingle Original Articles
Fowler, Cathrine
Green, Janet
Elliott, Doug
Petty, Julia
Whiting, Lisa
The forgotten mothers of extremely preterm babies: A qualitative study
title The forgotten mothers of extremely preterm babies: A qualitative study
title_full The forgotten mothers of extremely preterm babies: A qualitative study
title_fullStr The forgotten mothers of extremely preterm babies: A qualitative study
title_full_unstemmed The forgotten mothers of extremely preterm babies: A qualitative study
title_short The forgotten mothers of extremely preterm babies: A qualitative study
title_sort forgotten mothers of extremely preterm babies: a qualitative study
topic Original Articles
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7328789/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30786101
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/jocn.14820
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